Executive Summary - Sections + Subsections

Tiffany Gant

We currently use Sections + Subsections in the Content Library to build Executive Summaries (Intro, Value Story, Product, Implementation, and Conclusion, for example), with multiple approved “options” for Sellers to choose from and tailor in-project.

However, we are seeing consistent challenges:

• Sellers often request a full Word export instead of working in Responsive.
• Sellers want to tweak and slightly recreate the content for each customer/project, so reading through with one continuous flow seems advantageous to them.
• Multiple approved “options” subsections for them to choose from confuses Sellers, but we want to provide them options to choose from to be most applicable to customer/project.
• Defining a streamlined process to provide Sellers with a final Word version whether they work in the platform/project or not.

Questions for the group:

• How are you structuring Executive Summaries in Responsive (Sections, templates, and AI, for example)?
• Are your Sellers comfortable working in-platform, or do they prefer Word?
• How are you handling review/approval workflows?
• Have you found ways to reduce reliance on Word exports or improve adoption?
• Any tips/tricks to balance governance + flexibility while streamlining this process?

Appreciate any insights or best practices others are willing to share!

@Lisa Vitale

Robert Cantrell

Hey Tiffany!

We’ve seen a few enterprise customers run into similar challenges, especially when Executive Summaries require both strong governance and customer-specific customization.

One approach that’s worked well is treating Responsive as the source of truth for approved messaging while recognizing that Word is often still the final editing environment for sellers. Rather than trying to eliminate Word entirely, some teams use Responsive to assemble approved content, export the document, and then make customer-specific narrative adjustments in Word. That keeps governance centralized while giving sellers the flexibility they’re looking for.

For the multiple “option” sections, we’ve also found that reducing the number of approved variations—or organizing them into broader themes (industry, product line, use case, etc.)—can help reduce decision fatigue. It seems like the crux of the issue is that the Users are having trouble navigating the Sub Sections, so we might want to explore housing those in a specific Tag or Collection to pivot to an easier navigated structure.

One idea that may be worth piloting is Responsive Lookup. Since your sellers have expressed a preference for working directly in Word, Lookup could allow them to stay in their existing workflow while still pulling approved content directly from Responsive. Rather than exporting an entire executive summary from a project, sellers could search for the most relevant messaging—or even use Ask to generate a contextual draft—and insert it into Word as they build the document. It might be a nice balance between maintaining governance in Responsive while giving sellers the flexibility they’re looking for.